Huge Anglo-Saxon trove is found in English field
LONDON - An amateur treasure hunter prowling English farmland with a metal detector stumbled upon the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found - a seventh-century hoard of gold and silver sword decorations, crosses, and other items, British archaeologists said yesterday.
LONDON - An amateur treasure hunter prowling English farmland with a metal detector stumbled upon the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found - a seventh-century hoard of gold and silver sword decorations, crosses, and other items, British archaeologists said yesterday.
One expert said the treasure found in July by Terry Herbert would revolutionize understanding of the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people who ruled England from the fifth century until the Norman conquest in 1066.
"This is just a fantastic find completely out of the blue," Roger Bland, who managed the cache's excavation, said. "It will make us rethink the Dark Ages."
The Anglo-Saxons, a group of Germanic tribes, gradually invaded England by sea starting in the fifth century, after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Originally, they came from what is now the coastal region of northwest Germany.
Their artisans made striking objects out of gold and enamel and created poetry, including Beowulf, an anonymous epic poem about a warrior who does battle with monsters and a dragon.
Archaeologist Kevin Leahy, who cataloged the find, said the stash appeared to be war loot and included dozens of pommel caps - decorative elements attached to the knobs of sword handles. He noted that Beowulf has a reference to warriors stripping the pommels of their enemies' weapons as mementos.
But much other Anglo-Saxon literature and artwork has been lost through warfare, looting, and the passage of time, leaving scant evidence for scholars of the period.
Bland said the hoard was unearthed in what was once Mercia, one of five main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and is believed to date to 675-725.
It consists of 650 items of gold and 530 silver objects, along with some copper alloy, garnets, and glass. A total of 1,345 items have been examined by experts and 56 lumps of earth were found to contain metal artifacts detected by an X-ray machine.
Most of the objects are ornaments for weapons and other military artifacts, some inlaid with precious stones.
"I think wealth of this kind must have belonged to a king, but we cannot say that for absolute certain," Bland said.
Leslie Webster, former curator of Anglo-Saxon archaeology at the British Museum, said the amount of gold uncovered - 11 pounds - suggested early medieval England was wealthier than previously believed.
She also said crosses and other religious artifacts mixed in with the military items might shed new light on the relationship between Christianity and warfare among the Anglo-Saxons.
Herbert, 55, from the western English town of Burntwood, found the gold on a friend's farm July 5 and spent the next five days scouring the field for the rest of the treasure, recovering the first items before professional archaeologists took over.
"Imagine you're at home and somebody keeps putting money through your letter box. That was what it was like," Herbert said.
The hoard was officially declared treasure by a coroner, which means it will now be valued by a committee of experts and offered up for sale to a museum. Proceeds would be split 50-50 between Herbert and his farmer friend, who has not been named. The find's exact location is being kept secret to deter looters.
Bland said the treasure hunter could be in line for a "seven-figure sum."
The artifacts are in storage at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Some of them go on display today.
One of the most intriguing objects is a small strip of gold inscribed with a warlike quotation in Latin from the Old Testament. It reads: "Rise up, O Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed and those who hate thee be driven from thy face."
See more on the find at the museum Web site via http://go.philly.com/treasure EndText
